Yosemite Indians and Other Sketches (1936) by Mrs. H. J. Taylor

GALEN CLARK

Photograph by Taber

GALEN CLARK

Chapter 4:Galen Clark • 1814-1910

“GUARDIAN OF YOSEMITE”

he
pioneers of Yosemite are an intimate and interesting
part of its history. Galen Clark,
“Guardian of Yosemite,” came to California in 1853, two years
after the discovery of Yosemite Valley. For fifty-seven
years he was closely connected with the Valley
and adjacent region. In the family record book owned by his
nephew, L. L. McCoy, there is written in Galen Clark’s own hand:
“Galen Clark was born March 28th, 1814. A native of Dublin,
New Hampshire.” The following data are from letters and interviews
with his nephews, L. L. McCoy and A. M. McCoy, both of
Red Bluff, California. In 1836 Galen Clark settled in Waterloo,
Missouri. He was a cabinet maker by trade. Some years ago when
Mr. Clark was visiting in the home of L. L. McCoy he looked at a
chair with hickory bark bottom and remarked, “I made that set of
six chairs for your grandfather, Joseph McCoy, in Waterloo, Missouri,
in the winter of 1836-37.” In 1839 Mr. Clark married
Rebecca McCoy, daughter of Joseph McCoy. He lived in Missouri
until 1845 when, with his wife and three children, he moved to
Philadelphia. There, in 1848, his wife died, leaving an infant son
nine days old.

Mr. Clark took his children, three boys and two girls, to relatives
in Massachusetts, where they grew up and were educated. His
oldest son, Joseph, was killed in the Civil War. The second son,
Alonzo, graduated from Harvard in 1870, and in 1871 came to
California to be with his father who was then keeping the hotel
known as Clark’s Station, now Wawona. Alonzo died in 1874 and
is buried in the Mariposa cemetery. Elvira, the oldest daughter,
came west to see her father in 1870 and married Dr. Lee. They
lived in Oakland, California where her father, Galen Clark, died
on March 24, 1910. Ruth, the youngest daughter, remained in the
East. Solon, the youngest son, was drowned at the age of nine years

While Galen Clark was living in the East he heard accounts of
vast fortunes made by gold miners in California and determined to
see the new Eldorado. He came by way of the Isthmus of Panama
and in 1854 went to Mariposa, heralded for its rich discoveries.
and there engaged in mining. In August, 1855, a party of twelve
or fourteen from Mariposa and Bear Valley trailed into Yosemite.
Galen Clark, a member of this party, was fascinated by the Valley
and the mountain region surrounding it.

When exposure of mining injured his health and hemorrhages
became serious he was forced to give up the work. Mr. Clark recalled
the beautiful mountain meadows he had seen on his trip into
Yosemite and in the spring of 1857 he went to the South Fork of
the Merced, where the Mariposa Battalion had camped in 1851.
Here, in one of the loveliest mountain meadows of the High Sierra.
he made his home. It was half way along the trail leading from
Mariposa to Yosemite Valley.

On the spot where the Wawona Hotel now stands, he built his
log cabin, crude but not without charm. It had its shelf of rare
books;Yosemite pictures were on its walls; a great fireplace with an
ample supply of wood on either side made it an inviting place to
stay for a day or a month. Mr. Clark’s training in cabinet work
proved useful in these early mountain days and Clark’s Station became
a haven of rest for tourists on the long trail. As host, cook,
guide, scientist, and philosopher, Mr. Clark was a rare,
never-to-be-forgotten pioneer. He looked a patriarch and grew more
patriarchal every year. As travel increased, the cabin was enlarged and
furnished with comfortable chairs and the best of beds. Tourists
marveled at the abundance of excellent food. Add to that, Mr.
Clark’s interesting personality, refreshing wit, wholesome
philosophy, and his knowledge of trees, flowers, and animals, and can
one wonder that Clark’s Station was known far and wide?

Financially, Mr. Clark was not successful. He gave freely of
himself and spared no expense for the comfort and welfare of
guests. In 1870 he took Edwin Moore as a partner and the Station
became Clarke and Moore’s. The extensive repairs and additions
that were made were too costly for a hotel dependent solely on the
summer season tourists. In 1875 Washburn Brothers took over the
station and changed the name to"Wawona.” It is still a delightful,
restful hotel in a charming meadow.

The out-of-door life in the mountains completely restored Mr.
Clark’s health, as his ninety-six years testify. When the tourist
season was over he explored the surrounding country. He became
acquainted with the Indians as well as with the flora and fauna of
the region. While out hunting in 1857 he discovered the Mariposa
Grove of Big Trees (Sequoia gigantea). This grove contains three
hundred and sixty-five trees of great size, and innumerable seedlings
preparing themselves for coming generations. Mr. Clark became
a recognized mountaineer of the Yosemite region. John Muir
writes: “Galen Clark was the best mountaineer I ever met, and one
of the kindest and most amiable of all my mountain friends. His
kindness to all Yosemite visitors and mountaineers was marvelously
constant and uniform. . . . He was one of the most sincere tree
lovers I ever knew.”

Mr. Clark was greatly impressed by his discovery of the Big
Tree Grove. He would make these unknown trees accessible to
the tourist, and known to the world. He blazed a horse trail from
Clark’s Station to the grove and built a cabin, known as “Galen’s
Hospice,” to be used as a place to rest or to stop overnight if cold or
storm should overtake the traveler. Today a replica of the cabin
stands on the original location and provides a museum for the
Mariposa Grove of Big Trees.

The name “Clark’s Grove” was suggested for this grove but Mr.
Clark shunned publicity. His retiring, modest personality could
not accept the honor and he asked that, instead, it be named
Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. A tree, 240 feet high and 21 1/2 feet in
diameter,
the one first seen by the discoverer, is named Galen Clark.
The cairn close by was built by Mr. Clark.

To advertise the road and also to give tourists the thrill of knowing
the bigness of these trees, the Yosemite Stage and Turn-Pike
Company, in 1880 paid the two Scribner brothers $75 to cut a
tunnel 8 feet by 27 1/2 feet and high enough for stage and passengers
through one of the Big Trees. The tunneled tree was appropriately
named “Wawona,” which in the Miwok Indian language,
means “Big Tree.”

The advertisement brought returns and the route through the
Mariposa Grove became popular. Driving through a tree with the
stage was an interesting and thrilling experience. The photographer
saw his opportunity; when the stage was almost through the
tree it stopped; the camera man took the picture; the tourist gave
orders for copies; and the stage drove on, and he awaited the next
stage. Above the fireplace in the Yosemite Museum hangs a picture
of one of the early stages driving through the Wawona Tree. In
this picture Galen Clark sits with the driver. Tourists in no small
numbers drive through this tree each season. It is today in good,
healthy condition. Sufficient bark and living tissue for life and
growth remained after cutting the tunnel. No other tree has been
so widely known as Wawona, the tunneled tree. Pictured in school-books
throughout the land the memories of thousands, once school
children, recall the Wawona Tree.

Four Big Trees (Sequoia gigantea) have been tunneled. The Wawona Tree
in the Mariposa Grove was tunneled in 1880. The California Tree,
also in the Mariposa Grove, about one hundred yards
east of the Grizzly Giant, was cut about 1895. The first of the four
trees to be tunneled was the Dead Giant, in the Tuolumne Grove,
cut in 1878. It was stumped 90 feet from the ground and entirely
barked, thereby killing it—hence the Dead Giant. It will stand for
centuries, a ghastly specter. The fourth tunneled tree, known as
the Pioneer, is in the Calaveras Grove, and is the only one outside
the boundaries of Yosemite National Park. The Wawona Tree still
makes its appeal to the tourists of today. The other three tunneled
trees are all but forgotten.

Due to Mr. Clark’s interest and efforts no other grove has so
many well-known trees as the Mariposa Grove. The Fallen Monarch
attracts tourists in numbers as great as if it still lived and stood
among its fellows. Dr. Nicholas Senn, in his book
National Recreation Parks,
published in 1904 (p. 145), says: “Five years ago the
Monarch of the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias . . . severed his connection
with the soil that had nourished him so well and long and fell
helpless, crushing through the branches of his loyal neighbors.”

The Mariposa Grove must have trembled when the giant Massachusetts
fell in the spring of 1927. the tree is magnificent in its
repose. Fire burned away much of its base. Road-building in the
early years of Yosemite cut into its roots, which are wide-spreading
rather than deep, thus lessening still further its hold on the earth.
The eternal law of gravity gradually overcame every hold and the
great Sequoia fell.

The Clothespin Tree, the Telescope Tree, and the Three Graces
are well-known and are interesting in different ways. The Mather
Tree, dedicated to Stephen T. Mather, first Director of National
Park Service, whose valuable service, untiring efforts, and great
generosity have made every citizen of our country his debtor, is a
young Sequoia with its growth, power and usefulness in the future.
The tree is symbolic of the vision that Mr. Mather had for the
development of our national parks.

In respect to symmetry and beauty, the Alabama Tree has a
place all its own. Fire has not scarred it, wind, snow, and hail have
left its branches unbroken. Beautiful in form, vibrant with life, the
Alabama Tree has an alluring charm.

To many, Grizzly is the most beloved of all Big Trees. In his book,
Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California,
published in 1862,
J. M. Hutchings says (p. 148): “We measured one sturdy, gnarled
old fellow, which, although badly burned, and the bark almost
gone so that a large portion of its original size was lost, is nevertheless,
still ninety feet in circumference and which we took the liberty
of naming the ‘Grizzled Giant’.” In his article"New Sequoia
Forests of California,” published in Harpers Magazine,
November, 1878 (vol. 57, pp. 813-827), John Muir says: “The most notable
tree in the well-known Mariposa Grove is the Grizzly Giant,
some thirty feet in diameter, growing on the top of a stony ridge.
When this tree falls, it will make so extensive a basin by the uptearing
of its huge roots, and so deep and broad a ditch by the blow
of its ponderous trunk, that, even supposing that the trunk itself
be speedily burned, traces of its existence will nevertheless remain
patent for thousands of years. Because being on a ridge, the root
hollow and trunk ditch made by its fall will not be filled up by
rain washing; neither will they be obliterated by falling leaves, for
leaves are constantly consumed in forest fires; and if by any chance
they should not be thus consumed, the humus resulting from their
decay would still indicate the fallen Sequoia by a long straight
strip of special soil, and special growth to which it would give birth.
. . . The General Grant, of King’s River Grove, has acquired
considerable notoriety in California as the biggest tree in the world,
though in reality less interesting and not so large as many others
of no name. . . . A fair measurement makes it about equal to the
giant . . . which it also resembles in general appearance.”

Fire and storm have left deep scars on the Grizzly Giant of the
Mariposa Grove. It has a lean of twenty-four feet and the never-failing
force of gravity will slowly and surely lay it down. When,
no one knows.

No other pioneer was connected with Yosemite in so many ways,
for so long a time, and so intimately as Galen Clark. The grant from
the Federal Government setting aside Yosemite Valley and the
Mariposa Grove of Big Trees for a State Park, was approved by
President Lincoln, June 30, 1864. Frederick F. Low, Governor of California,
appointed Galen Clark on the commission to govern these
two tracts. Later he was appointed Guardian of the newly made
Park. His long and valued service in this position, which he held
for twenty-four years, earned for him the title “Guardian of Yosemite.”
His cordial and generous hospitality, his never-failing kindness
to all tourists, gradually and permanently bestowed on him
the more intimate title “Beloved Man of Yosemite.”

In 1890 Yosemite became a National Park, but Galen Clark
continued to make the Valley his summer home for nearly twenty
years. He brought the first wagon into Yosemite Valley. Charles
Tuttle, the first white boy born in Yosemite, rehearsed the sensation
created by this event: “I was a boy of eight or nine years when the
first wagon was brought into the Valley. Galen Clark had it packed
in on mule back. I had never been out of the Valley and had never
seen a wagon. Everybody was interested to see it assembled. When
all was in readiness three or four days were given to celebrate the
event and everybody living in the Valley had a free ride; I will never
forget those days! They were wonderful!”
In 1889 John Muir writes:
“I find Old Galen Clark also. He looks well and is earning a
living by carrying passengers about the Valley.” The old wagon is
an interesting and prized relic in the Yosemite Museum.

Throughout his years Galen Clark was sought by tourists in
order that they might hear the experiences and tales of this pioneer,
who was not without wit and a keen sense of humor. His
niece, Florence McCoy Sheffield, told the following to the writer:
“Four women tourists met my Uncle Galen in Yosemite and were
welcomed to his cabin. To their request to hear of his life in Yosemite
he replied that he would tell them of his experiences if they
would indicate what they were interested in hearing. With one
accord came, “We want to hear all about everything, you just go
ahead!” With a benign smile and a twinkle his eyes never lost he
said: ‘I’m no artesian well, but I can be pumped. You just go
ahead’.”

On the Lost Arrow Trail there is an open space that frames in
the Yosemite Falls. Here is the John Muir plaque that marks the
spot where once his cabin stood, and a few feet away stands the
Memorial Bench that in 1911 was dedicated to Galen Clark.

When Washburn Brothers took over Clark’s Station in 1875,
they gave him the freedom of their hotel for the remaining thirty-five
years of his life. He was a frequent and ever welcome guest.
Upon his death in Oakland at the home of his daughter, Elvira
Clark Lee, on March 24, 1910, at the age of ninety-six years,
Washburn Brothers asked the privilege of bearing all funeral expenses.
They took the body to Yosemite where, more than twenty years
before, Galen Clark had selected a burial spot in the old cemetery.
In each corner he had planted a young Sequoia taken from the
grove that he had discovered in 1857. In the Merced Star of April 7, 1910,
we read that the girls and boys of Yosemite Valley, dressed
in white, attended the funeral services in a body. Each carried a
wreath of evergreen and cherry blossoms tied with purple ribbon.
One by one the wreaths were laid about the casket. The pallbearers
placed their boutonnieres upon the casket. The body of Galen
Clark was lowered into the grave that he himself had dug a few
years earlier. A rough granite boulder, upon which he had chiseled
his name in 1890, is his headstone.

The many tourists interested in the pioneer days of Yosemite
have worn a path to the grave of
Galen Clark—“Beloved Man of Yosemite.”